Nemesis by Agatha Christie Read Free Book Online

expect to have anything more from him. Well, I certainly didn't expect to have anything more from him. He was very much a man of his word, wasn't he? But apparently he changed his mind.”
    “Yes,” said Miss Marple. “Yes. I am very glad of that. I thought perhaps, not that he, of course, said anything, but I wondered.”
    “He left me a very big legacy,” said Esther. “A surprisingly large sum of money. It came as a very great surprise. I could hardly believe it at first.”
    “I think he wanted it to be a surprise to you. I think he was perhaps that kind of man,” said Miss Marple. She added:
    “Did he leave anything to, oh, what was his name? the man attendant, the nurse-attendant?”
    “Oh, you mean Jackson? No, he didn't leave anything to Jackson, but I believe he made him some handsome presents in the last year.”
    “Have you ever seen anything more of Jackson?”
    “No. No, I don't think I've met him once since the time out in the islands. He didn't stay with Mr Rafiel after they got back to England. I think he went to Lord somebody who lives in Jersey or Guernsey.”
    “I would like to have seen Mr Rafiel again,” said Miss Marple. “It seems odd after we'd all been mixed up so. He and you and I and some others. And then, later, when I'd come home, when six months had passed - it occurred to me one day how closely associated we had been in our time of stress, and yet how little I really knew about Mr Rafiel. I was thinking it only the other day, after I'd seen the notice of his death. I wished I could know a little more. Where he was born, you know, and his parents. What they were like. Whether he had any children, or nephews or cousins or any family. I would so like to know.”
    Esther Anderson smiled slightly. She looked at Miss Marple and her expression seemed to say 'Yes, I'm sure you always want to know everything of that kind about everyone you meet.' But she merely said:
    “No, there was really only one thing that everyone did know about him.”
    “That he was very rich,” said Miss Marple immediately. “That's what you mean, isn't it? When you know that someone is very rich, somehow, well, you don't ask any more. I mean you don't ask to know any more. You say 'He is very rich' or you say 'He is enormously rich,' and your voice just goes down a little because it's so impressive, isn't it, when you meet someone who is immensely rich.”
    Esther laughed slightly.
    “He wasn't married, was he?” asked Miss Marple. “He never mentioned a wife.”
    “He lost his wife many years ago. Quite soon after they were married, I believe. I believe she was much younger than he was - I think she died of cancer. Very sad.”
    “Had he children?”
    “Oh yes, two daughters, and a son. One daughter is married and lives in America. The other daughter died young, I believe. I met the American one once. She wasn't at all like her father. Rather a quiet, depressed-looking young woman.”
    She added, “Mr Rafiel never spoke about the son. I rather think that there had been trouble there. A scandal or something of that kind. I believe he died some years ago. Anyway his father never mentioned him.”
    “Oh dear. That was very sad.”
    “I think it happened quite a long time ago. I believe he took off for somewhere or other abroad and never came back - died out there, wherever it was.”
    “Was Mr Rafiel very upset about it?”
    “One wouldn't know with him,” said Esther. “He was the kind of man who would always decide to cut his losses. If his son turned out to be unsatisfactory, a burden instead of a blessing, I think he would just shrug the whole thing off. Do what was necessary perhaps in the way of sending him money for support, but never thinking of him again.”
    “One wonders,” said Miss Marple. “He never spoke of him or said anything?”
    “If you remember, he was a man who never said anything much about personal feelings or his own life.”
    “No. No, of course not. But I thought